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Lovely Lavender Dress Refashion

I picked up a few jersey knit dresses to wear in the summer, I got one in black, one in green and one in lavender. I found that I would pull the black or green dresses out of the closet over the lavender one. Every time.

Green dress not shown

Eh

I like the other ones when I’m wearing them, but not this one. Maybe it’s the lighter color? Anyway, this one has been in the refashion pile for awhile.

I had a general idea of what I wanted to do with the dress so I put it on Sally and surveyed the situation to see if it’d be possible.

I played with the elastic waistline that used to fall at my natural waist and confirm that I could indeed make it an empire so I also took a seam ripper to the binding on the neckline.

This is what sewing looks like at my house

Next I stitched down the raw seams at the arms. Then I folded over the top edge on the front an back and threaded the old sash/belt through. The original plan was to tie it off at the sides.

I like it

I no longer like it! It would always look crooked on me

I decided that the tie would work best in the middle to keep from pulling the back off center. So I cut about halfway down to the waistline in the middle of the back and secured the edges.

I stitched down the top edges, threaded the old sash through and ditched the old belt loops.

They really wanted to be in the after picture!

I now have a comfortable summer dress. With the tie in the back, I can easily throw on light sweater and wear it to work.

Bad Habits Are Hard to Break

Last week I shared a story on my Facebook page that one of my favorite refashion bloggers had posted a link to. It was about a woman who inhaled a pin accidentally and the need to have a piece of her lung removed to remove the pin.

It was a frightening tale and it made me vow to stop holding pins (and needles) in my mouth while sewing. This is a bad habit and as I was working on this dress I kept finding myself going to hold the pins in my mouth.

It’s a horrible habit that I need to break and that has become sewing goal #1. If you are in the same habit, try to break it because swallowing or inhaling these things is really dangerous and can happen very easily.

Here’s the side-by-side:

I posted about my Kitchen Makeover yesterday and I’m really proud of how it turned out and the handmade touches are frequently complimented by our visitors! (Occasional threats to steal our K have been made in jest!)

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